| Session Details | |
| Section | OS - Ocean Sciences |
| Session Title | Differential Responses of the Marginal Seas (Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, Java Sea, Japan Sea / East Sea Etc) to the Asian Monsoon and Climate Change |
| Main Convener | Dr. VSS Sarma Vedula (Regional Centrer of National Institute of Oceanography, India) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Minhan Dai (Xiamen University, China) Dr. Murty Vadlamani (National Institute of Oceanography Regional Centre, India) Dr. Prasanna Kumar S. (National Institute of Oceanography, India) |
| Session Description | A quarter of humanity, ca 1.5 billion, lives in the Asia-Oceania region, which houses several river basins, estuaries and marginal seas. Since the Asia-Oceania region comes under the influence of the seasonally reversing monsoon regime, and agriculture being one of the major sources of economy, the food and livelihood security of the population is directly or indirectly depends on the Asian Monsoon. In addition, a large population living in the coastal region depends on fishing for their livelihood. Thus, the numerous marginal seas and the Asian Monsoon serve as the lifeline for the people of this region. The changing land use pattern along with environmental degradation and pollution poses threat. The increased concerns of the effect of global warming are a new threat that the region needs to deal with. Hence it is important to understand how these marginal seas respond to the changing monsoon regimes from intra-seasonal to inter-annual and to decadal scales. It is in this context that a session on “Differential responses of the marginal seas (Bay of Bengal, South China Sea, Java Sea, Japan Sea / East Sea etc.) to the Asian Monsoon and climate change” is proposed. Though there exist a large number of studies focusing on a particular marginal Sea to understand its response to Asian monsoon, time has come to understand the differential response of each of the marginal seas in tandem. It is also equally important to understand the biogeochemical cycle in various marginal seas. For example, the nature and characteristics of biogeochemical cycle in each of the marginal seas and its role in the overall CO2 flux of the Asia-Oceania region is of utmost importance from the climate change perspective. It is expected that a consolidated understanding would emerge from this session to identify the generic response of the marginal seas to the impending climate change. Session Description It is expected that the scientific presentations at the proposed session would address 1. Response of the marginal seas to Asian Monsoon on intra-seasonal to seasonal to inter-annual scales. The intra-seasonal variability would include the bi-weekly mode, Madden-Julian Oscillation and instability which is expected to force different basins differently depending up on its geographic location, proximity to the landmass, rivers, etc. 2. Biogeochemical cycle and its variability in the marginal seas. The biogeochemical cycling within a marginal sea depends up on several factors such as availability of sunlight, micro and macro nutrients, production of organic matter through photosynthesis and its subsequent consumption by respiration, grazing etc. The proximity to the river system and dessert/semi-arid regions will greatly influence the biological productivity and air-sea exchange of gases at interface. |